Thursday, October 30, 2014

Where would we be without Google translate, eh? Well as the title above shows, probably none the wiser, but you can kind of see where they're coming from.
Anyway, This Saturday's run is (or was the last time we heard) being set by Kee Kee Leum Ling and full details are:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers run #1741, Saturday November 1st, 4:00 p.m. (or thereabouts)
Hares: as above
Misdirections: From the Kao Seng intersection take the old Yala road for about 4.2k and turn right (immediately after the army base) then follow the road for about 500m and bear left just before the gates into the gor sor nor, then follow the road until you see signs of intelligent life something that looks like a run site.
Sunday's HH3 run was announced last week as being at Gam Ling reservoir with Sex Star down as the hare, But that will probably be confirmed at the run on Saturday. However, definitely on is next week's Full Moon H3 run which will be set by Egghead from Egg Towers in celebration of his somethingty somethingth birthday. More details later but make a note in your diary for Wednesday 5th November at 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

We could all do with some good news after Sunday's tragic events at HH3, so here's Sex Sprinter sitting up and smiling after a week in 2 different hospitals, first with a bout of leptospyrosis and now with dengue. He's hoping to be well enough to join us on Saturday but probably won't be leaving hospital this time until he's well and truly better after a rather untimely exit and re-entry last Saturday.

Anyone with some time on their hands who wants to go to see him, he is in Hatyai Hospital in the in-patients ward, 4th floor, room 430 - well actually he is outside in the corridor next to room 430 which seems to be the fate of most of the patients there!

Also available for visits is Nian "After Ours" who has moved in with Crackwurst in Saiburi Soi 47 as Pranee is now caring for her full time. Best not to leave it too long before paying her a visit. 'Nuff said.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

As your Blogmeister, I was asked by the GM to put up a brief 5,000-word commemoration marking the 1000th post on this site. But if you've been counting, you will realize that Egghead got there first with his recap of our 33rd Birthday Run immediately below this one. I think that's a more fitting 1000th post than some pointless comments by me, but now you're going to get those anyway.

The Online Scum came into existence just over five years ago, in August 2009. Typically of hash endeavors everywhere (although usually not in ours in Songkhla), its birth was accompanied by various accusations, recriminations, and conspiracy theories. It wasn't really expected to last long or attract any real readership.

Well, that was 1,000 posts and over 100,000 page views ago, so yes, we've exceeded expectations, especially our own. (For the record, our most-viewed post is this one, with well over 2,400 hits. We suspect that most of those people were searching for something rather different and must have been sadly disappointed.)

We've also attracted almost exactly almost 1,000 comments, both from a wide range of hashers as well as many luminaries from around the world and at least three different centuries. They include Sigmund Freud, Pierre de Fermat, Charles Darwin, Søren Kierkegaard, Erwin Schrödinger, Niels Bohr, Hosni Mubarak, Lee Kwan Yew, Bill Gates, Harry Potter, the Pope (presumably the present one), Bozo the Clown, and famed photographers Henri Cartier Breaston and Ansel Arselover. Oh, and Fufu the Dog (and Rin Tin Tin too), the genuine and inimitable Braniac, and such notable NGOs as the PLO (Poultry Liberation Organization) and the PLF (Pigloid Liberation Front). And that guy Anonymous, who seems to be our biggest fan.

Anyhow my thanks to all our contributors, especially Egghead, my defacto co-editor here. He was of course the founder and main editor of the original hard-copy Scum, which certainly has to have been among the most ambitious and entertaining hash newsletters anywhere. None of us have quite that much energy or free time these days, but I like to think we still maintain a pretty lively on-line presence.

As always, we invite anyone who wants to post anything they like. If you don't already have posting rights (shown by a "New Post" button I think at the upper-right of the page), just drop me a line and I'll put you on the contributors list. Likewise if you have any requests for our hard-hitting investigative team or our fearless photographers, post a comment here and we will do our best to swing into action.

Yesterdays facts and figures: Long run about 7k, roughly split 3.5k before the first beer stop and 3.5 after it which also served as the short run. The first half took about an hour, the second half seemed to take about 30 minutes with another impromptu beer stop on the way. The total ascent was 271m with the maximum height being 170m.

Complaints about the hill were muted and largely confined to Gan Yao, but, damn it, in his 'Captain Velocity ' alter-ego he made it to the top, even if he was the only person to then work out that all that thrashing around up the hill was unnecessary and just cut straight back down to the beer stop.

The AWOL award went to Yardstick who was the last to arrive at the first beer stop having got completely turned round at the 4th check, then missed out the 2nd beer stop after getting completely turned round by the 6th check. Lots of great attempts at redefining Superman's pants: Kee Ling couldn't find red so had to settle for yellow, Ru Man Kap found red but only in a G string and Softcock's had black spots.

At the circle which followed swiftly on the end of the run, Bilbo from the Isle of Wight was welcomed back (he last ran with us on the Great Train Run in 2006) and Justin who had rescued the Hash team from the jaws of defeat in Friday's quiz night was named "Just in? Not yet!". Food ensued; there was lots of it; it was up to the usual Tung Jaeng standard. The remainder of the evening has somehow disappeared in fleeting recollections of ghouls, zombies and vodka flavored red jelly.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

In time honored tradition (as in we've run out of better ideas)
the run will take place at the Tung Jaeng restaurant on the new Yala road. and
will be followed by dinner, and entertainment. The run and dinner come at the
usual active runner price of 60 Baht with guests (i.e. unnamed runners) a snip
at 250 Baht and kids 30 Baht. Beer will be from the beer truck and for later,
the restaurant have said that they have no objection to us bringing our own. So
any contributions will be most welcome, or just buy from the restaurant - their
prices are about the same as the beer truck.

The run
will be an A-B-C and the transport to both the A site (long and adventurous
short run) and the B site (less adventurous short run) will leave promptly at
4:33 and 27 seconds. So don't be late (Gan Yao!)

The run
is Superman themed which is just a cheap excuse for getting everybody to run
around the countryside with their Y-fronts outside their shorts, thus
confirming the world's view of us as a bunch of harmless eccentrics. Later, those inclined towards fancy dress should wear something Halloweenish - there
will probably be a prize for the most scary outfit (as opposed to the most scary wearer which Kee Leum would win hands down!).

Misdirections: From The Kao Seng intersection take the old Yala road
for 11k and turn right at the Ang Thong intersection into the new Yala road for
1.4k to the Tung Jaeng restaurant on the left. (See Pussies Redux of 24th
Septembersuprafor fuller instructions for the
directionally insecure).

Sunday's HH3
run is somewhere near Sri Sat Kiri – along the road between the new
Hatyai road and Nam Noi, on the left. The hare is Robocop (so that ought to cure
any lingering hangovers!). From the Ko Yo intersection take the New Hatyai road
for 8.5k (past the True Moves tower) then turn left and go as far as you have
to before seeing a hash sign on the left.

Finally, there is a quiz night on
Friday night (October 24th) at the Office Bar. The quiz-master is
KoKo which should ensure that no one has much idea what is going on. But the
Hash team will be stoically attempting to resurrect its unbeaten record which
died last time around. Come along and poke fun at us as we prove that there is
an inverse square ratio between cognitive function and beer consumption, and
throw it all away on the last round yet again!

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Friday, October 17, 2014

This week's SH3 run details are:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers run #1739
Hares: R2D2 and Kee Ling
Misdirections: From the Kao Seng intersection take the Hatyai road for about 3.5k and turn left for 500m to the run site on the left in Rong Rien Keow Kaow.

Sunday's HH3 runsite is located on the old Hatyai road,1k past the Nam Noi traffic lights on the left just before the entrance to the elephant park. The hares include Sex Star....
Nothing else!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

There's an HH3 social evening TONIGHT (Tuesday 14th October) which is being held at Superpig's new doggie grooming parlour in Hatyai, Foo Foo Grooming. Among other things this is to welcome the new HH3 GM, our very own Ru Man Kap, or Robocop if you prefer, as well as to listen to some jazz as Sex Sprinter's son who is a professional musician will be providing the music.

There's a map below, but for the literally inclined, take Petkasem Road from the Ko Hong traffic lights, past Big C Extra, then on for about another kilometer past Hadyai Wittayalai School then turn right into Nipat Songkraw 3. Go ahead for about 500 meters to a roundabout/crossroads and go straight ahead. Foo Foo Grooming is on the right just after wards. Anytime after 6 p.m. seems to be the general message but 7:00 will be ok!

Plans for a full moon run tomorrow night (Wednesday) have had to be shelved when it was discovered that few if any of the HH3 runners would be able to attend because of commitments later in the week. So the next Hash event will be the pre-outstation meeting on Thursday night (6:30 p.m. 'ish) at Buk Toy's yard on the New Hatyai road (go to the Ko Mi traffic lights and do a U turn then come back about 500 meters towards Songkhla; the yard is on the left just past the big black Buddha) when the draw for the car rally will take place and T shirts to be worn during the rally will be distributed.

Otherwise, if you are going to the outstation run but don't intend to join the rally, below is a graphic of the route which involves taking the new Hatyai road to its junction with the main N-S highway then turning right for about 23k to the Rataphum turn off, then taking the 406 left towards Satun for about 48k and turning right onto the 4137 for about 10k before turning right onto the 4004 for about 13k. The resort is on the left. There is a complete route in GPS-friendly (.gdb) format available for anyone who needs it and isn't on the SH3 circulation list. Just append a comment below with an email address and I'll send it on.

Monday, October 6, 2014

Contrary to the advertising for last Saturday’s run, there
was no bull on this run. And, in contrast to Sunday’s HH3 long run there were quite a lot of nice winding trails to RUN along, with only a short
section of sliding down muddy slopes, sadly enjoyed by only a small contingent of just 7 long runners. Several, alright three of the normally SH3 long runners, opting for the various connotations of the short and medium runs.

The statistics for the various runs were as follows:

The long run overall length was 8.7kms, but that included the
6 x checks, 2 x check-backs & 10 x false trails, with a total ascent of 292m.
The medium long run (in green) was 5.5kms long with a total ascent of 148m. The
short run (in blue) was 3.6kms, with a total ascent of just 86m. However most
of the short runners did a combination of the short and medium runs, which took
them through some rather nice longan orchid country. The short and medium
runners returned to the runsite more or less together in about 1 hour, while
the more fanatical, gung ho long runners took just over 1 hour 10 minutes to complete
the whole run. The small contingent of HH3 runners consisting of Sex Sprinter,
Tsunami and Robocop, who managed to lead the way in, but only right at the end.
The unfamiliar countryside had the long runners looking for paper in some rather
interesting directions.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

By request of The Cronies®, here is some information on two Angkor marathons, either of which could make a good out-station run.

The older and bigger event is the Angkor International Half Marathon. In addition to the half marathon (21km), it offers 10km and 3km ("Family Run") runs. The only problem is that it's held this year on December 7. That might be rather too soon for most of us, while December 2015 feels an awfully long time away. Plus it's seriously high season, which could make hotels and transport more troublesome than usual. Siem Reap gets very crowded at peak season these days.

The hot new contender is the Angkor Empire Half and Full Marathon. They ran their first one just this past August, and will do it again on August 9 next year. This one seems to me to have several advantages. They do a full marathon, if any of you are up for that, as well as the half and 10km and 3km runs. The timing is better, giving us more time to prepare (or "train", if you like), plus it's low season. I've been to Angkor in August and it's just right: cloudy and cool, wet sometimes but seldom heavy rain. Finishing times for their marathon this year ranged from 2:45 to over 7 hours, so you could go pretty slowly and still not be totally humiliated. Plus it's a smaller event than the International Half, which I think is all to the good.

Air Asia does a nice package price on Hatyai-Siem Reap tickets, currently about B3,500 each way. The schedule is pretty easy: leave Hatyai at 4 pm., change planes at Don Meuang, and arrive at 9pm. Coming back the flight leaves Siem Reap at noon and arrives in Hatyai at 5:10pm.

If there's interest I can try to liase with Phnom Penh Hash. They used to go the International Half Marathon every year, though there's been a lot of turnover in their ranks and I'm not sure if they still do. I also hereby offer to organize accommodations, as I know some pretty good hotels. And I've got a few favorite restaurants and bars, and can promise we will eat well, not to mention drink some very good wine (import duty on wine: 0% in Cambodia vs. 267% in Thailand). Local transport, by remorque-moto, can easily be arranged on site.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Yardo's in charge this weekend and has been granted access to a simply huge pile of shreddy as well as 2 (count them!) GPS's. So expect something special (as in don't plan anything for the evening!)
Details are:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers' run #1738, Saturday 4th October, 4:30 p.m.
Hare: Yardstick and R2D2
Misdirections: From the Kao Seng intersection take the Old Yala Road for 17.7k (7.1k past the OYR/NYR junction) and turn right just after Thang Khwai School. Follow the hard top road for 1.2k and turn right onto the track across the rice paddies for 0.5k. Turn left for 0.1km then right for 0.8km to the runsite. From Hatyai, turn right at the Nam Noi traffic lights and follow the road through Tha Kam for 12.5k then go straight ahead at the big tree and go for a further 3.5k to the Old Yala Road. Turn right for 1.7k and turn right just after Thang Khwai School etc.
The hare advises that the suggested route to the runsite (shown in green on the maps below) will be sign-posted all the way from the OYR with the odd scattering of shreddy to point the way. The roads should be passable for all vehicles, even in the rain.

Sunday's HH3 run details have not been announced yet but there's a new flyer for the outstation run the following week with some extra information to tempt the vacillating. For those who are intending to come and haven't booked yet, get along to this week's run and do so!

Welcome to the electronic organ of Songkhla Hash House Harriers

SH3 is a group of runners, walkers, beer drinkers, and picnickers based in Songkhla, Thailand. We run every Saturday at 4:00 pm. Free transport available on the beer truck, which leaves The Hot Bread Shop on Srisuda Rd. at 2:30 pm. sharpish. Despite what you may see here, we're a family hash and visitors are always welcome. The easiest way to contact us is by adding a comment to any post here.

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Three times the fun!

As the hashing center for Thailand's Deep South, the Songkhla region offers three different hashing experiences: Songkhla Hash, every Saturday; Hatyai Hash, every Sunday; and Hatyai Full Moon Hash, which runs the night of every full moon or thereabouts. Misdirections to each weekend's runs usually appear here by Thursday or so.